Deploy and Host Kutt on Railway

Kutt is a modern, open-source URL shortener. It creates short links with custom slugs, optional passwords and expiry dates, and records visit statistics by browser, country and referrer. It has a clean web interface and a REST API, so scripts and other apps can create links too.

About Hosting Kutt

This template runs the official kutt/kutt:v3.2.6 image as a single service backed by SQLite on a Railway volume. On first boot a small seed script creates the admin account from the variables, because Kutt otherwise hands the first visitor the admin setup page. Public sign-up and anonymous link creation are both turned off, so only you can create links. Short links use your Railway domain; add a custom domain in Railway and update DEFAULT_DOMAIN for shorter URLs. Links and statistics survive redeploys. The service uses little memory and runs comfortably on the Hobby plan.

Common Use Cases

Short, branded links for social posts and printed material
Tracking clicks on links in newsletters and campaigns
Creating links from scripts or other apps through the API

Dependencies for Kutt Hosting

kutt/kutt:v3.2.6 (official image)
A Railway volume at /var/lib/kutt for the SQLite database

Deployment Dependencies

Implementation Details

Service	Source	Networking	Storage
kutt	`kutt/kutt:v3.2.6`	public domain on 3000	volume at `/var/lib/kutt`

Variable	Default	Purpose
`KUTT_ADMIN_EMAIL`	`admin@example.com`	Admin created on first boot
`KUTT_ADMIN_PASSWORD`	generated	Admin password (first boot only)
`DEFAULT_DOMAIN`	`${{RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}`	Domain used in short links
`DISALLOW_REGISTRATION`	`true`	Closes public sign-up
`DISALLOW_ANONYMOUS_LINKS`	`true`	Only signed-in users can create links
`JWT_SECRET`	generated	Signs login tokens

Notes:

Create an API key under Settings to use the REST API (/api/v2).
The health check uses /api/v2/health, because / redirects to the login page.

This is a community-maintained deployment package and does not imply affiliation with or endorsement by the Kutt project.

Why Deploy Kutt on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying Kutt on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.